Mumbai: In an obvious reference to the killing of journalist, activist Gauri Lankesh and rationalists Dabholkar and Pansare the Bombay High Court observed that the “trend of killing all opposition” in India is “dangerous”.

Hearing a petition, requesting a court-monitored probe into the murders of Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare by their family members a division bench of the high court headed by Justices SC Dharmadhikari and Vibha Kankanvadi cited, “Will more people be targeted? There is no respect for liberal values and opinions. People are increasingly being targeted for their liberal principles… Not just thinkers, but any person or organisation that believes in liberal principles can be targeted. It’s like if there is some opposition to me, I must have that person eliminated.”

“This trend of killing all opposition is dangerous. This is giving a bad reputation to the country,” the high court bench said as the CBI and Maharashtra CID submitted their probe reports in the Dabholkar and Pansare’s murder cases.

Gauri Lankesh was shot dead on September 5 on the doorstep of her house in Bengaluru. While Dabholkar was shot dead on August 20, 2013, in Pune, Pansare was shot at in Kolhapur on February 16, 2015. He succumbed to his injuries on February 20.

“While your efforts are genuine, the fact remains that the prime accused are still absconding,” stated the court adding “between every adjournment, more precious lives seem to be lost…(a) like-minded person has been killed in Bangalore.”

The bench directed the probing agencies to change their line of investigation and make use of technology to nab the culprits who still remain at large.